Perhaps no article of human use has seen a greater variety of design and appearances than the pervasive watch. Virtually all adult humans and many children are found wearing some type of watch upon their forearm or watch as they go about their daily lives. While the variation in appearance and design of such watches varies dramatically with taste preference, all generally include a case or housing within which the working apparatus of the watch is supported and protected. A dial or other time indicating mechanism is generally supported upon the outer face of the watch case and is protected by an overlying clear crystal or the like. In general, some type of band or other similar fastening article is secured to the watch case and is used to attach the watch to the wearer's wrist or forearm. Certain watches are fabricated in a form known as a pocket watch in which the case supports the internal works and in which a dial and time indication mechanism is protected by a clear crystal. In pocket watch type timepieces, the band is generally omitted and unnecessary.
Not long after the development of reliable watches of the type which may be worn upon the wrist or carried easily in a pocket, practitioners in the art soon found that mere function was usually insufficient to effectively market their watches. The trend which quickly developed and continues to this day found users demanding evermore decorative and interesting appearing watches to suit a variety of user tastes.
Practitioners have attempted to provide more interesting and decorative watches by resorting to the use of various types of metals including brilliant and often precious metals, inlays of jewels and stones, and the more recently developed colorful plastic molded cases and bands.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,910,532 issued to Rhine sets forth a COMBINATION WRIST WATCH AND FLASHLIGHT in which an analog watch for training children to read the time includes a watch case supporting a flashlight. The flashlight is configured to illuminate the watch face and permit the reading of the indicated time in low light or darkness. The flashlight includes a mechanism for automatically turning off the flashlight after a predetermined period of illumination.
While the foregoing described prior art types of watches have provided improvement and enhancements to the decorative qualities and interest values of watches generally, there remains a continuing need in the art for evermore interesting and exciting types of watches.